Santiago Sights

Day 3- Exploring Santiago, Chile

After an unsettling trip to the corner store on a first day in Santiago we were filled with fear and trepidation when contemplating setting foot outside our safe haven of the La Casa Roja. We feared all of Chile leered and jeered at us Gringas (foreigners).

However, as we drew closer to the city centre we realised that our beloved safe house was situated on a questionably dodgy fringe of the city. Ahh that explains a lot...

 In the city square we watched the crowd be entertained by a clown who cleverly dragged many unwilling passerby-ers into his creative performance. Children ran from the crowds eager to play only to get embarassed and run away. A stray puppy toyed with the pant legs of business men who had stopped to watch the performance. Behind us a band played traditional Chilian music for those gathered in the square. Old men gathered to play chess and checkers under the shade of the trees. We poised to take a photo. A homeless, crippled man lay out his clothes on a park bench to dry in the sun. Many wheeled stands around selling icecream to the hot and bothered crowd. A group of european tourists stood out from the crowd their cameras dangling around their necks waiting to hear their guide explain the significance of the man riding the horse. Old women dashed to and fro in front of the grand cathedral trying to sell armfuls of rosary beads to the bustling crowd. When Tiffany and I approached them after arming ourselves with our best customer spanish they all ran away??? Still confused as to why that happened lol

 We stood inside the cathedral door and listened to the priest deliver his sermon (in spanish of course). Many came and went anointing themselves with holy water and pausing to hear what the priest shared for the day. His voice echoed through the grand cathedral commanding attention. The cathedral was stunning inside with great high ceilings ornately decorated with perfectly detailed paintings and dripping in gold. An interesting contrast to the great poverty that we encountered throughout the city.

We continued on to a park from which we could faintly see the statue of Mary perched upon a hill watching over the city. Here we discovered that South Americans are not coy when it comes to displays of public affection. I felt we were intruding on a great number of "moments" but the many couples seemed were completely, and i mean completely uninhibited by our presence.
We fled to the Bella Artes Museum where we guessed that we may have seen some very famous paintings that were completely lost on us non-spanish speaking tourists :(!

When we finally returned home we began getting ready for our flight to La Paz early next morning. We decided it would be best to just stay awake as we had to be up at 2am to make it to the airport in time. This was a decision we would immensely regret the next day.